Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks
Taking Apart the iPod mini
So, after posting this entry this morning, I became obsessed with the idea of taking apart the iPod mini. So, I did. Here's some pictures walking through the steps that I followed over at iLounge, although I was able to do it all with my Swiss Army Knife, and it all still seems to work. I did have a bit of difficulty removing the bottom plate from the iPod mini (which went shooting across the room as I pried at it).
Despite all reports of it not working, I tried sticking the 4GB microdrive in my Nikon D70, but, alas, the reports were true. I could reassemble everything now, but I'm debating the microdrive transplant that I mentioned in the last post.
Update: After trying multiple times to format the drive in a way in which it would work with my Nikon, and then after trying to reassemble the iPod mini with other drives (a CF card and my 340MB microdrive), I finally gave up and reassembled the iPod mini. Still works.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike said 2:38PM on 11-19-2005
For a second I thought: "Pink iPod? Good on him."
But, alas, I find that it's your wifes... :)
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Jan Kabili said 3:51PM on 11-19-2005
Sorry the disinterred microdrive doesn't work with your camera, but all is not lost. You could use it for another purpose. One of my students took the microdrive out of his iPod mini and uses it along with a card reader to easily transfer files back and forth to our Photoshop class.
Jan
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alex said 5:47PM on 11-19-2005
I think you should put in your mini all the guts of a nano and get a new microdrive for it and rename it iPod mini photo
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Daniel said 5:05PM on 11-19-2005
I read somewhere that if you just mount it on your computer and format as FAT it will work.
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alex said 5:47PM on 11-19-2005
if you look at the pictures, he's done just that. It apparently works just fine as a regular hard drive, although it appears specifically as an iPod when it's mounted on the computer.
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Robin said 6:33PM on 11-19-2005
This is a must for all ipod mini owners if you take apart your ipod and mess it up, or just want to Bling your pod!
http://www.ipodwizard.net/showthread.php?t=152
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Nate MC said 7:02PM on 11-19-2005
You need to modify the disc settings to get others to work with the iPods as the "firmware" is on a portion of the hard drive.
Similar to how this guy got a 300gb hard drive hooked up to his iPod
http://www.command-tab.com/index.php/ipod-super
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Justin Wong said 8:02PM on 11-19-2005
I had a friend who somehow like erased everything on the memory card (sorta like what happens when you put magnets to a hard drive) he was able to use about half of the memory (2.2GB) but the other half was somehow "disabled" or something
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Collin said 3:42AM on 11-20-2005
Sounds like a fun project...
Email me if you get stuck and I'll see if I can help out :-P
~ Collin (http://www.command-tab.com/index.php/ipod-super/)
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J said 9:42AM on 11-20-2005
aah, just make this one go away.
NOW-ish.
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Don Wilson said 1:57PM on 11-20-2005
Why are you taking it apart? It's a perfectly good iPod. If you didn't want it, just give it away. No need to tear apart products when /you/ don't need them.
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dylan said 6:24AM on 11-21-2005
if it still works send a picture of it to me by email and if it still looks ok ill buy it for $25
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Robin said 3:59PM on 11-20-2005
Its redundant. It could sit on a table for 4 months doing nothing or it could be used in a camer.
Or by selling the parts you could fix somebody elses mini sharing the ipod love.
When I sold my ipod in pieces I got nearly double the amount of money I would of got if I sold it as a whole.
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